Swales had been convicted of four offences of sexual abuse of a girl then aged seven or eight years old, and was awaiting sentence.

Souter wrote to his victim saying: ‘A lie is a lie is a lie and will always be a lie and the truth will always be the truth.

‘Only you and God and his angels know the truth and they only want what is best for you.

‘You have heard of Karma – what goes around comes around. You may be known as the girl who ruined an innocent man’s life.’

She tried to cover for Neil Anthony Swales (Picture: Ross Parry)

Swales was eventually jailed for eight years at York Crown Court.

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The court heard that Souter discussed the letter with relatives, got another woman to write the address on the envelope and posted it away from her then home in Great Edstone, Kirkbymoorside, North Yorkshire, to hide her identity.

Although the girl’s mother managed to intercept the letter before she had read more than the first line, it still had such a traumatic effect on the girl, now a teenager, that she no longer feels safe in her own home and is taking psychological counselling.

The Honorary Recorder of York, Judge Paul Batty QC said; ‘This was a premeditated course of conduct intended to try to persuade a vulnerable victim of sexual abuse to change her account and thus achieve for her partner a reversal of the verdicts that had been returned by this court.’

He said Souter had put ‘extreme pressure’ on the girl.

‘Anyone who in these circumstances seeks to suborn a witness in the way you did by the writing of this letter can only expect a custodial sentence.’

Souter, who managed the Black Swan tearoom in Helmsley, admitted sending an offensive letter and was jailed for 12 months.

Her barrister Reginald Bosomworth said she now fully accepted that Swales was a paedophile and had thrown everything to do with him out of her life.

In a letter to magistrates for her first court appearance passed to the judge, Souter wrote: ‘I am not a malicious or a vindictive person. I apologise unreservedly for my actions. I will never do anything like this again.’

After the case Fiona Richards, NSPCC head of region for Yorkshire, said it offered a service for partners of paedophiles and helped them come to terms with the danger posed by the sex offenders close to them.

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‘Alison Souter’s actions would have added to the trauma of this young girl, prolonging her ordeal and potentially delaying her recovery. But she herself was manipulated by Swales, as so many others would have been.’

Sex offenders rely on trust and the willingness of those close to them to support them, she said.

‘So we can perhaps understand the struggle Alison Souter faced,’ she said.